Huge mulch fire stumps firefighters in Jefferson County

HOUSE SPRINGS, Mo. -- A massive mound of mulch seems to be giving firefighters fits.

For more than a week at a site in this St. Louis-area community, the one-acre pile has smoldered underground, having belched so much smoke that firefighters liken it to a volcano.

Jefferson County leaders are considering whether to clear a nearby trailer park, where residents complain smoke has made it tough to breathe.

When it comes to defeating the fire, "we're trying just about every avenue we can think of, and to be honest, most of them aren't very good," High Ridge duty chief John Larkin said after firefighters already had poured more than 350,000 gallons of water.

These days, firefighters are scouring the Internet in search of clues for putting out the fire.

Heat-releasing decomposing leaves and wood can ignite when conditions are right. Although small compost fires are common, authorities say they've never heard of a mulch fire the size of the one here at Charlie's Scrap Metal.

Larkin said the department learned of the fire on April 17, and firefighters from eight departments poured water on the blaze for 18 hours -- to no avail.

Firefighters considered ripping the huge mulch pile apart with bulldozers, but they feared heavy equipment could be consumed by the burning mulch, believed to be more than 60 feet high. Officials considered blowing up the pile with dynamite but deemed that too dangerous.

Buffer zone around pile

Larkin said firefighters have stopped fighting the blaze but were monitoring it to ensure it did not spread beyond a 15-foot buffer zone surrounding the pile.

Around nearby Bear Creek Estates, residents said that for the past week white plumes would settle like fog, complicating breathing and vision.

"It burns your eyes and makes you cough," said Rose Lucas, 72. "Some days there's nothing but smoke and ashes down here."

Renee Bungart, a state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman, said the smoldering site is not a true compost pile but a scene of illegal yard waste. The state is investigating, she said, suggesting the site owner "was accepting yard waste from commercial haulers and landscaping companies, but he wasn't rotating it."

Regular rotation of compressed yard waste lets heat escape, preventing fires from igniting.

Ed Kemp, Jefferson County associate commissioner, worries that the fire could burn for a year if the state does not take charge of efforts to extinguish it.

"I've had a headache for seven days straight, and it's not from worrying about the fire. It's from the fire itself," he said.